Editorial: Almost over?

Saturday

Oct 30, 2010 at 12:01 AMOct 30, 2010 at 10:12 AM

School officials in Mount Vernon no doubt are relieved that one front in the battle being waged against them by John Freshwater has been shut down. The former science teacher moved last week to drop a federal lawsuit he filed against those who fired him.

School officials in Mount Vernon no doubt are relieved that one front in the battle being waged against them by John Freshwater has been shut down. The former science teacher moved last week to drop a federal lawsuit he filed against those who fired him.

The school district and the community will be even better off when a state administrative referee finally rules on the firing. Freshwater's appeal of his 2008 dismissal has dragged on too long, at great cost to everyone involved.

The Mount Vernon Board of Education was amply justified in firing Freshwater. Ignoring concerns and complaints from parents and school administrators, he infused his classroom teaching with his Christian faith. That's a clear violation of the First Amendment prohibition against a state institution professing a religion.

Because he was a science teacher, his religion-based rejection of the theory of evolution - the foundation of biological science - was a profound detriment to his middle-school students' education. Teachers at Mount Vernon High School testified that they sometimes had to reteach basic evolution concepts to Freshwater's former students, lest they fail that portion of state proficiency tests.

Defiance and a bizarre lapse in judgment - he refused to remove a Bible from his desk or take down religious posters in his room and misused a scientific instrument to burn a mark on students' arms - further justified his dismissal.

Perhaps Freshwater's decision to drop the lawsuit signals that he is ready to drop the administrative appeal, as well. It already has cost school-district taxpayers more than $700,000, and Freshwater has said that he and his wife have spent their life savings pursuing the appeal and the lawsuit.

All this easily could have been avoided. Freshwater could have committed himself to teaching science professionally or, if his religious calling was paramount, he could have followed it in some setting other than a public-school classroom.

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